Maeklong Railway Market

The Maeklong Railway Market is located in Maeklong District in Samut Songkhram province, 75 kilometers or an hour drive away from Bangkok.

The name of the market in Thai - Talad Rom Hoop literally meaning "Market Umbrella Pulldown" directly defines the nature of the market - storekeepers pulling down their umbrellas when the train passes by. 

As the market has been situated at the Maeklong district long before the government decided to build a railway through it in 1905, the locals have already been used to this phenomenon as a daily routine of keeping and retracting their goods when the train passes by. 

And while tourists visting the market keep looking at their watches to check when the train will arrive (most of the time the trains do not arrive as scheduled), the locals seem to know exactly when the trains will pass by, only keeping their stuff just a minute before the train passes by.

When the train passes by, you are just less than 1 meter away from the train. But fret not, no danger posed here, as the train is one of the slowest line in Thailand, running at only an average speed of 30Km/h.

Immediately as the train passes, the storekeepers push their stuff back to the railway track and resume business back to usual. The whole process of pushing the stuff in, waiting for the train to pass and pushing it back only took less than 5 minutes. 

While waiting for the train to come or after the train passes by, you can walk along the train track to see the locals selling fresh produce such as vegetables, seafood or fruits.

This is a type of salted fish, put into a bamboo basket sold in most stores at the market. And you buy the fish together with the basket, so it's convenient to just put the bamboo basket directly into the steamer to cook the fish at home.

This is the Maeklong train station where the train will end it's journey or start off from here. 

Tourist can have a photo opportunity close up with the train when it stops at the station. 

As usual, souvenir shops line along the railway track for tourists to bring home a piece of Maeklong Station remembrance. 

We had a light lunch of fishball noodles at one of the stalls located at Maeklong station area. 

 I ordered the dry kway tiao. Although it looks quite dry without much sauce, it actually taste quite good! I especially like the fried garlic sprinkled on top of the noodles.

My kakis ordered the soup version. I think it should be quite tasty as well.

There are also stalls selling cakes and sweets. Very nostalgic.. reminds me of the days when I was a child. 

 

The guide recommended us to buy this. Roasted in charcoal, and wrapped into a cylindrical shape while hot, it is a sweet and crunchy snack.

The roasted squid looked good! And very cheap at THB20, I couldn't resist to buy a stick to try. However, I could only taste the saltiness from the seasoning. Would be much better if they used less salt.  

Guess what are these? it took me a while before realizing that they are actually fishballs! 

The train runs through the Maeklong railway track 8 times a day, departing at 6:20, 9:00, 11:30, 15:30 and arriving at 8:30,11:10,14:30,17:40. So you have to be at the railway at these times in order to catch the train in action!

Mister Donut

Mister Donut is the largest chain of Donut store in Japan, with more than 1300 stores found in almost every main street of Japan. They are popular for their cheap, delicious donuts and you don't have to queue for a long time unlike Krispy Kreme. 

Periodically, they will have a JPY100 sale for their donuts, which normally sell between JPY120 - JPY150. 

And just like St Marc cafe, donuts are self service where you take a tong and tray, select your favourite donut and pay at the cashier at the end of the line.

You will also find a seasonal or special edition item in the stores and these items changes every few months. When I visited, the special item was the snoopy mont blanc house. 

We ordered the chocolate french cruller, angel cream donut and a cup of coffee. And did you know that their coffee is refillable as well? Their service is so good that the waitress even brought the coffee pot to your table to refill the coffee for you!

These are some of the special items that have been created by Mister Donuts for the past years. Kudos to the people who think up of all these creative donuts!

Mister Donut

www.misterdonut.jp (Japanese only)

St Marc Cafe Chococro

Saint Marc Cafe opened it's first doors at 1998 at Tokyo Ginza and has gained popularity from it's signature product, Chococro - a short form for Chocolate Croissant. 

The secret in the croissant lies in 3 points:
Chocolate - using the best Ghana and Ecuador beans which has a slight bitter taste
Pastry - Butter and Margarine are mixed and the pastry has more than 20 layers
Kiln - the pastries are carefully baked in a Kiln at 230 degrees 

All pastries are displayed at the self service counter and you can just pick any up and pay at the cashier. 

I ordered the Fresh chou cream croissant set which includes a cup of coffee at JPY390 (SGD 6)

They also carry seasonal items, such as the white chococro - a white chocolate croissant symbolizing the white snow of Christmas. You can also get a box of white and chocolate croissant at JPY790 for 5. 

Besides the seasonal white choco croissant, some of the other seasonal croissant includes: banana, strawberry choco, match and milk tea. All sounds so delicious!

When in Japan, just look out for this orange circle logo for the nearest St Marc chococro cafe!

p.s. you can also get your fix of chococro at Vivocity Unit 01-108/10

http://www.saint-marc-hd.com/cafe (Japanese only)